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WESG Retrospective - Part 1: National Competition

Blogs > BluemoonSC
Post a Reply
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-01-30 20:47:15
January 30 2017 20:46 GMT
#1
Now that I’m back in the world of the living and have my head on my shoulders I can properly write about what was easily the best trip of my life. I had a really bad fever and bronchitis that I contracted when I returned home thanks to little sleep and airplane germs which prevented me from getting this out sooner, so apologies!

The Level of Competition in ‘National Esports’

For those of you that followed the tournament all of the way through, Alibaba’s goal with a tournament of this calibre was to create a national-level tournament for esports, akin to the Olympics. In theory this is pretty cool, but I think the fact that most Dota teams are not made up of individuals from the same country makes this goal a bit of a pipe dream. While we got to see teams like Alliance, TNC, and Horde perform, it still doesn’t have the hype that other premiere matchups like the EGs and VPs can bring to the stage.

Even from China, you’d think that there would be more teams itching to see if they could get a cut of that $800,000 top prize. Yet, we’re left with relatively unknown teams playing in the qualifiers; teams I didn’t even know existed! For reference, only 2 of the teams that participated in the Chinese qualifier have Liquipedia pages and one of them didn’t even make it out of the groups. Where were the Chinese players in a hometown event with a good sized purse? Allegedly, ACE had a hand in making sure that this would be the case, but why?

I can only speculate here, but my guess is the timings didn’t pan out due to several events surrounding the qualifiers and main event. DPL, MDL, ESL and DAC qualifiers come to mind as well as preparation for the Boston Major. We saw teams dropping from Dreamleague for similar reasons and DreamHack is already a well-known, prestigious league so this wouldn’t be too far-fetched. While some think that the prize pool was encroaching on their own domestic tournament offerings, it is far more likely that the DAC qualifier timing played a huge part into this.

Timing concerns aside, compare this style to individual esports like Starcraft and Hearthstone and you see the differences in the quality of matchups. Having a TY vs Maru Grand Final was pretty much something any Starcraft fan would be happy to watch. Even the Hearthstone playoffs were full of players that a noob like myself was able to recognize and be happy with! For 1v1 esports (and with the use of qualifier events, of course) I think that this style of tournament is different and great! Not all tournaments should be the same, so to see one with a different qualification style like WESG is great. However, currently I do not see team esports in the same position as other sports such as the World Cup.

Unless teams are already naturally nationally homogenous, what reason do players have to practice with a national squad? For the one or two times a year that these kinds of tournaments pop up, there is very little incentive to deviate from practice with your main roster. The prize pool was certainly prestigious, but taking part in multiple events with smaller purses is likely more appealing when you require a lot of chemistry to excel in team games. It might be possible to allow one foreign player, but then the allure of a nation-based tournament completely dissolves, in my opinion. That being said, I am not really sure how you would go about fixing this format to be better. Alibaba could just leave it the way it is, but I do not see them offering the same level of cash for the sub-Olympic quality of games that we got.

All national “issues” aside, at bare minimum, the tournament was a lot of fun. Multi-game events are always interesting for me, and in particular this event, because I follow several games pretty regularly. While I couldn’t get as much into the CSGO portion of the event because I don’t follow the random players and teams that made it to the Shanghai final, all of the Dota, Starcraft, and Hearthstone main stage games were enjoyable for me. In the second part of this blog, I’ll be talking about that more when I discuss how the event treated the media (spoiler alert: they did a great job).
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Sn0_Man
Profile Blog Joined October 2012
Tebellong44238 Posts
January 30 2017 20:49 GMT
#2
I thought the ACE boycott had to do with WESG being run by alibaba and ACE being owned by competitors of some variety
LiquidDota StaffSCIENTISTS BAFFLED | 3275929302
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
January 30 2017 20:50 GMT
#3
It's possible, but I feel like there would have been more outrage if it was purely competition a la PEA - I can't find a single English article on it though.
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Sn0_Man
Profile Blog Joined October 2012
Tebellong44238 Posts
January 30 2017 20:53 GMT
#4
Thats because the only thing less relevant than wesg is what the english media think of chinese teams attending wesg
LiquidDota StaffSCIENTISTS BAFFLED | 3275929302
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
January 30 2017 21:03 GMT
#5
On January 31 2017 05:53 Sn0_Man wrote:
Thats because the only thing less relevant than wesg is what the english media think of chinese teams attending wesg


I do think that the reason that it was not as relevant as it should be was likely because of the quality of teams involved
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Shrinkzxo
Profile Blog Joined August 2014
Dotoland672 Posts
January 31 2017 00:43 GMT
#6
WESG wouldn't play ball.
https://twitter.com/shrinkzxo
Maverick_2009
Profile Joined December 2014
Somewhere2002 Posts
January 31 2017 01:28 GMT
#7
how many parts is this gonna be, just outta curiosity
https://www.twitch.tv/deso_739
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
January 31 2017 04:08 GMT
#8
On January 31 2017 10:28 2009 wrote:
how many parts is this gonna be, just outta curiosity

i think just a second one that talks about what they did well and not so well for the media
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Yurie
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
11790 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-01-31 06:16:08
January 31 2017 06:12 GMT
#9
I think the big problem with team games here is that there aren't multiple teams in each nation. If you take football in England you have around 44 teams that have full time players. (Maybe a bit more.) This means the best players are spread out over many teams and you never see them play together. In Dota you have nations that can't field 5 full time players, thus making the discussion about all-star teams over multiple nations and leagues a bit anti-climatic.

In football not many think the national teams would beat the best teams in the most exclusive leagues. They practice together a lot more and are picked from multiple nationalities to fit the strategy. The same is of course true here but doesn't make it less entertaining. Though I in principle decry nationalistic things in practice I like them..

Overall an interesting tournament and something that has been missing since the previous one stopped.
ChunderBoy
Profile Joined August 2011
3242 Posts
February 01 2017 21:30 GMT
#10
china was nice
"mmr is a social construct" - tumblr
Yurie
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
11790 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-02-02 17:31:53
February 02 2017 17:31 GMT
#11
On February 02 2017 06:30 ChunderBoy wrote:
china was nice


Is it worth paying to go there once? Sadly live in Sweden so can't get the tournament to sponsor me since Alliance and Horde block me. (Not that I would make it through the EU qualifier after that :D)
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
February 03 2017 18:47 GMT
#12
On February 03 2017 02:31 Yurie wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 02 2017 06:30 ChunderBoy wrote:
china was nice


Is it worth paying to go there once? Sadly live in Sweden so can't get the tournament to sponsor me since Alliance and Horde block me. (Not that I would make it through the EU qualifier after that :D)

absolutely worth it to go at least once

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPVA97DjnVq

Shanghai is beautiful. The culture there was great. I have to get through my day 3+4 photos before i post the ones I took from a temple i went to.. absolutely stunning.
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Maverick_2009
Profile Joined December 2014
Somewhere2002 Posts
February 03 2017 21:33 GMT
#13
On February 04 2017 03:47 BluemoonSC wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 03 2017 02:31 Yurie wrote:
On February 02 2017 06:30 ChunderBoy wrote:
china was nice


Is it worth paying to go there once? Sadly live in Sweden so can't get the tournament to sponsor me since Alliance and Horde block me. (Not that I would make it through the EU qualifier after that :D)

absolutely worth it to go at least once

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPVA97DjnVq

Shanghai is beautiful. The culture there was great. I have to get through my day 3+4 photos before i post the ones I took from a temple i went to.. absolutely stunning.

ah yes, the view from the other side across from Pearl Tower... I've been up Pearl Tower once, not a bad experience but potentially incomparable to being at the top of the Empire State
https://www.twitch.tv/deso_739
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